Send this to a friend

Los Altos-based Box continued to grow rapidly in 2011, doubling its work force to 650 and pulling in $125 million in new funding at a valuation of $1.2 billion. So why would co-founders Dylan Smith, left, and Aaron Levie go public in 2013? Because competition has never been fiercer in the collaboration and storage business.

Figuring out who was getting ready to go public used to be easier. Just watch for the regulatory filings.

But now companies are allowed to keep their plans in stealth mode, letting them test the waters and withdraw quietly if the climate is chilly.

So there is a certain amount of guesswork involved in projecting who will make their stock market debut in 2013, especially in light of what happened after Facebook took the dive last year, literally.

What looked to be shaping up as a record year turned out to have the lowest number of global IPOs since 2008. Offerings in the U.S. raised $41 billion, about the same as the year before 2011, with Facebook pulling in $16 billion of that.

But a number of Bay Area companies have IPO filings that are public and more have made it clear that they are on track to go public eventually, if they don't get acquired first.

So here are the local companies figured most likely to show up on in one of those opening bell shots at Nasdaq or the NYSE before this year's out.

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.